Tag: Hello Kitty

Hello Kitty, Japan’s iconic cat character, glittered and gleamed in Tokyo after being reborn in Swarovski crystals for a good cause — raising money for disaster relief.

On display in a showroom in Tokyo’s fashionable Omotesando area were versions of the famous feline in everything from tiny earrings to melon-sized figurines.

The centerpiece of the project, a collaboration between the Austrian jeweler and Sanrio Co, the company that markets Hello Kitty, was a 20 cm (7.9 inch) limited edition figurine picked out in 19,636 crystals — and carrying a price tag of 1.2 million yen ($14,800).

The Hello Kitty GPS has been announced by Seiwa! A Japan only device, it will begin selling on July 31st. Shaped like Kitty’s head, it comes with an onboard digital TV tuner so you can even watch TV while on the go.

It has a 7 inch touchscreen which supports a resolution of 800 x 480 pixels.

It has two input jacks so you can connect a DVD player, video game consoles or even reverse camera.

You can playback video and audio files via a SD card.

And to top it off, the GPS comes complete with a bow shaped remote control.

Sanrio Co., home of Hello Kitty, and Mercis BV of the Netherlands have agreed to drop a courtroom spat over whether the Japanese company’s rabbit character Cathy is too much like famed Dutch rabbit Miffy and instead donate 150,000 euros ($220,000) each to help the reconstruction of the area struck by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. And everybody’s happy, not least investors in Sanrio: Shares in the company rose to an 11-year-high in Tokyo as the specter of potentially costly ligitation evaporated without any dents to Hello Kitty’s reputation in Europe, a key business area for Sanrio.

Back in November, a court in Amsterdam upheld most of Mercis’ claims, ordering Sanrio to halt production of goods related to Cathy in regions including the Netherlands. In response, Sanrio filed a suit demanding a suspension of Miffy’s trademark.

But the aftermath of March 11 brought a thaw in previously frosty relations. The firm managing Miffy’s copyright suggested dropping the case after Miffy’s creator Dick Bruna, 83 years old, replied to a request from daily paper Asahi Shimbun seeking a message of hope. In response, Mr. Bruna faxed a message accompanying a teary Miffy saying, “My best wishes to Japan.”

A 36-year-old truck driver suspected of involvement in hundreds of burglaries in Gunma and Saitama prefectures between 2004 and 2010 was likely wearing Hello Kitty sandals during the crimes, just like when he was arrested, Saitama police have said.

Masakazu Kanda, currently on trial for theft and other charges at the Saitama District Court, was wearing pink sandals bearing the famous feline character when he was walking on a street in Saitama Prefecture in June 2010, catching the eye of police officers after footprints collected from residences where burglaries had taken place showed the perpetrator was wearing Hello Kitty sandals.

Creator of Japan’s cartoon icon of cuteness Hello Kitty on Thursday said it was unhappy with a Dutch ruling in a copyright case against its famous feline character’s rabbit friend Cathy.

An Amsterdam court this week ordered Sanrio Co to halt production and sales of Cathy merchandise in the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg after finding the Japanese bunny too closely resembled the Dutch character Miffy.

Tokyo-based Sanrio said it was ‘discontent with the temporary injunction’ by the Dutch court, which came in a case launched by Mercis, the copyright management firm for Dutch children’s book author Dick Bruna.

‘We will continue to make our point through the court case that we have not infringed on the plaintiff’s rights,’ Sanrio said in a statement. ‘We are considering filing a complaint.’

That is the fear of executives at the Sanrio Corporation, the Japanese company that created the cute, cartoonish white cat in 1974, and groomed her into a global marketing phenomenon worth $5 billion a year.

In Japan and around the world, Hello Kitty has been licensed over the years for products that include dolls, clothes, lunch boxes, stationery, kitchenware, a Macy’s parade balloon and even an Airbus owned by Taiwanese airline EVA Airways.

Ooh So Cute! is a new site that focuses on everything cute! It’s a one stop shop for everything kawaii and cuddly. The site has an adorable layout and offers an array of everything you may need to make your life a little cuter. Fashion and cute come together on this site like never before. Cute or kawaii characters like Hello Kitty, Miss Bunny, Duffy and Tinker Bell to name a few can be found in every shape and form you can imagine. You can get everything from cute accessories to adorable car floor mats. Kawaii, ne? They even offer things for men and boys as well, cause you know they can use a little cute, too. It seems as long as it’s cute, it’s on Ooh So Cute!

The site hopes to be a place where anyone can find something they like and not have to worry about spending time mulling through other sites weeding out the cute. It also hopes to be a place where families can shop together online. So there won’t be anything unwholesome on the site.

The site has many offerings and will be adding more and more each day. If you know of something cute you should let them know. If you sign in you can rate an item with an +1 Ooh! Heart, share your comments on every item, and get updates via either twitter or RSS. The top rated items are listed so you can participate and help Ooh So Cute! make the world a cuter place!

Hello Kitty, the leader of Japanese Kawaii (Cute) culture, became 35 years old this year.
Sanrio Company created her just that long ago.

She had been for little girls for a while. But, a Japanese popular singer said that she loved Hello Kitty’s goods, and then the lid was off and she got popular among broader generations. Kitty’s simple face and pink color are good accents in girls’ chic fashions everywhere. A lot of celebrities have Hello Kitty wares adorning them around town.

You will see Hello Kitty goods like pens and straps for cell phones at souvenir shops in every prefecture you go in Japan.

By the way, do you know why Hello Kitty doesn’t have a mouth? The reason is because it makes her face not specify her facial expression and so she shares the same feelings with you all the time. Mona Lisa can eat her heart out.